3 years after deadline, FDA still hasn’t defined ‘gluten-free’ - The Washington Post

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3 years after deadline, FDA still hasn’t defined ‘gluten-free’

By Lyndsey Layton, Thursday, April 28, 10:21 PM

For seven years, the Food and Drug Administration has been trying to

answer this question: What does it mean to be “gluten-free”?

That is roughly the time it took to build a tunnel beneath the English

Channel to connect Britain and France.

In the meantime, foodmakers have been deciding for themselves whether

they can jump into a lucrative new niche and market their products as

free from gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. As a result,

some products labeled gluten-free contain no gluten, others might have a

trace and still more could contain a sizable amount.

That murkiness is creating a real problem for an increasing number of

Americans whose health depends on avoiding even tiny amounts of gluten,

which is commonly found in bread, pasta and other staples and even in

some unexpected products, such as soy sauce and blue cheese....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/3-years-after-deadline-fda-still-hasnt-de\

fined-gluten-free/2011/04/22/AFRq6i8E_story.html

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